Guards Track 2 Men Who Escaped Through Prison Fence

MINNEOLA — Prison guards are looking for two prisoners who cut through a fence and escaped early Sunday from Lake Correctional Institution.

''We have reason to believe they might have received assistance in the theft of a vehicle and may have left the area,'' prison Superintendent Sterling Staggers said Monday.

Both prisoners were classified as ''close custody'' inmates, meaning they must be accompanied by armed guards when they are outside the prison fence, Staggers said.

Guards and tracking dogs searched for the prisoners for about eight hours after the two were discovered missing from their dormitory at about 2 a.m. Sunday. They were in their beds during a bedcheck an hour earlier, Staggers said.

The men apparently left their dormitory through a window, crawled across the compound and escaped through a hole cut in the fence on the south side of the prison, he said.

The two escapees are:

-- Ramon Villavicencio, 26, a Cuban refugee. Villavicencio was convicted in 1983 of burglarizing a Seminole County building and was serving a five-year sentence. He is described as having black hair, brown eyes and two tatoos -- a rosary on the lower right arm and the initials ''RAVH'' on his left arm. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 155 pounds and has a ruddy complexion.

-- Jimmy Maddox, 38, convicted in 1981 of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in North Carolina. Maddox was serving a 58- to 60-year sentence. He is white and has red hair and blue eyes. He has a tatoo of a heart on his right forearm and tatoos of a tombstone and a pitchfork on both arms. He is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds.

Staggers said the search was called off after dogs tracked the fugitives to an area in Minneola where a car had been reported stolen.

Authorities have no leads on where the two may be going. Staggers said no correctional personnel have been held responsible for the escape.